The mother of Myles Gray, a 33-year-old man who died after being beaten by members of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), testified at a public hearing into the officers conduct Monday.
Margie Gray said at first, after learning her son had died, she was in shock.
But moments later: “I dropped on the ground and started screaming and screaming and screaming,” she said.
On the first day of the hearing into their actions, all seven VPD officers denied the allegations that they intentionally or recklessly used unnecessary force in Gray’s death.
Gray was beaten by police Aug. 13, 2015, in a wooded backyard in Burnaby and died at the scene. He was initially reported to police for spraying someone with a garden hose. His injuries included ruptured testicles, a broken voice box, a fractured eye socket and widespread bruising.
The hearing, one of the largest of its kind, probes whether VPD Constables Kory Folkestad, Eric Birzneck, Derek Cain, Josh Wong, Beau Spencer, Hardeep Sahota and Nick Thompson abused their authority.
On Monday, Margie Gray described her son as a man interested in mountain biking, weightlifting, fishing and hockey.
She said he regularly made deliveries for his wholesale floral evergreen company.
But that day in August 2015, she got a call from one of her son’s employees asking where he was, as his van was still at a florist supply shop in south Burnaby on Marine Way.
She went to the shop and found her son’s van left behind.
In an eight-minute 911 call, Margie Gray told the dispatcher her son was missing and had left his wallet, keys and backpack in the van, along with the rest of the day’s deliveries, worth thousands of dollars — undelivered. She told the dispatcher that this was unusual and that the supply shop employee said Gray had wandered off.
In the call, she said he had “snapped” in the past and had been diagnosed as bipolar.
After the call, in time, many police officers arrived at the floral warehouse, she explained.
One approached her husband.
“He said, ‘Mr. Gray, your son is dead. He was in an altercation with the police and he died of that altercation.'”
She said police never showed family members a photo of her son, and instead they identified him by his necklaces: dog tags and a bullet with a hole through it on a chain.
“They were caked in mud and blood,” Margie Gray said.
Cross examination by Cain’s lawyer Glen Orris focused on whether she was aware if her son had used marijuana or steroids.
She said she was unsure about steroids, adding marijuana had a “negative effect” on him — she didn’t like how he spoke to her or how he acted, but it never made him violent or aggressive.
Outside of the hearing room, Myles Gray’s family and friends told reporters it felt like he is on trial and not the police.
“It’s so hard to watch his character be assassinated,” said Erin White, one of Gray’s friend.
Melissa Gray, Myles Gray’s sister, said she wants to honour her brother by attending the hearing.
“He was hilarious, and he was very personable, and he just tried to find the good in every day,” she said — but added she isn’t at all optimistic that the hearing may find misconduct by the officers.
“This has been 10 years, and this is where we are.… Twice, it was unsubstantiated. Why would it change now?”
Gray’s case has been investigated by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C., which recommended criminal charges, but the B.C. Prosecution Service announced in 2020 it would not lay charges.
A 2023 police discipline proceeding also looked into whether the officers abused their authority, but the officers were cleared.
Six of the officers, excluding Birzneck, are also accused of neglect of duty by failing to make notes and provide statements as required. They have all denied the allegations.
Two officers, Folkestad and Cain, were absent from the hearing on Monday for medical reasons. They were represented by their lawyers.
More than 30 witnesses are expected to testify over the course of the 10-week hearing, according to public hearing counsel Brad Hickford. It will include RCMP and VPD officers who attended the scene, three members of the Vancouver Police Union who will testify whether or not they told members not to take notes, paramedics, firefighters and a forensic pathologist. A “use of force” expert will also share an overview of how force should be applied by police, how VPD officers are trained, and how the seven officers’ actions fit within that framework.
The officers whose conduct is the subject of the hearing cannot be compelled to testify.
The hearing continues Tuesday.
